What about peace?
This coming weekend the Peace and Justice Studies Association (PJSA) is holding a conference here in Winnipeg. The conference, titled Building Bridges, Crossing Borders: Gender, Identity and Security and the Search for Peace, will be held over two days and will feature workshops and plenary speakers from all over the peace and justice studies spectrum.
In conjunction with the PJSA’s conference, a youth summit will be held on the topic of peace-building. The youth summit, titled Peace Out Summit, is geared towards students who are just about to graduate high school as well as those just beginning their undergraduate studies. The tagline for the youth portion of the summit is ” A cross border summit for tomorrow’s peacebuilders.” And indeed, many borders are being crossed. In addition to students from Canada and the United States, the summit will also host nine students from Kenya, Africa, who are participating in the Canada World Youth program.
This week I had the opportunity to sit down and talk with several people who are involved in both the conference, as well as the youth summit, in regards to the importance of peace-building, particularly when it comes to the involvement of young people. I left each of these discussions extremely inspired, and proud that a summit of such great importance, value and relevance is being held so close to home. In particular, the depth of my inspiration came from how hopeful the people involved in the planning and facilitation of the summit feel in regards to how much change one young person, or a group of young people can initiate.
Being a graduate of the International Development Studies program at The University of Winnipeg, the topic of peace-building, especially the engagement of youth when it comes to peace-building, is one that I hold close to my heart.
Gandhi once said: “Be the change you wish to see in the world.” This is a quote that I have always found inspiring especially when it came to my studies of international development, or what I sometimes thought should be re-named “international underdevelopment.” Sometimes, I found myself depressed at the massive amount of poverty in the world, particularly poverty that comes as a result of mass conflict. It was when I felt most depressed about the state of our world today, that I found myself also discouraged as to what I could do about it. After all, I am only one person. One white, suburban, middle-class person living in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. What can I really do about the state of the world? What can I do about genocide in Darfur, civil wars in South America, or the political conflict that raised a state of chaos in Thailand this past summer? At some point throughout my degree, something hit me (you know, one of those “aha” moments) and continues to resonate when it comes to my thoughts on the state of this world: One person CAN make a difference, because ONE person quickly can become MANY people, and many people can inspire change.
At the beginning of the week I sat down with one of the workshop facilitators, Karen Ridd, to talk about her involvement in the summit. I asked Karen what she was most looking forward to in terms of leading her particular workshop. Karen, a professor of Conflict Resolution Studies at The University of Winnipeg, as well as a practitioner in the field itself looked me straight in the face and said with utmost sincerity: “I think a lot of youth are concerned with the state of the world, and discouraged with the state of the world, as well as discouraged with what they can do about it.” (insert: me over the entire course of my undergraduate studies). “I want to motivate change, and the things that these young people are able to do in bringing about change.” (Insert shiver here.)
It was exactly this particular thing that came up in conversation when talking about the Peace Out Summit with its coordinator, who is also studying International Development and Conflict Resolution Studies at The University of Winnipeg. I asked him why he felt it was so important to bring youth together for summits such as this one. He responded with this:
“If you really look at the way we do things as a society, as a whole, as the culture that we’re apart of, we glorify war and violence and we don’t spend very much time engaging, especially youth, on issues of peace. If we could put a fraction of the money and the energy and the time that our society puts towards violent activities towards peace-building activities, I think we would be a lot better off.”
He describes peace-building as the “action in working towards a compassionate co-existance between all people.” (Again, insert shivers here.)
My final question to the coordinator of the Peace Out Summit was along the lines of the typical, “if these youth could walk away from this summit having learned/ gained one thing, what do you hope it to be?” He answered me, without hesitation, in two words. “Have hope.”
I think that’s the key thing here. Youth need to be hopeful. They need be hopeful because they ARE tomorrow’s peace-builders. We CAN inspire change, and we CAN change the state of this world.
I am definitely looking forward to having the opportunity to spend some time at the conference this weekend, and to continue to be inspired to believe that we are in fact the generation of change.
